November 21, 2018

Jim Stewart ~ Perfervid Photographer

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A month or so ago my friend and photographer Jim Stewart (links below) died just short of his seventy-sixth birthday. I was his model in 1982 for a series of photographs he did for advertisement posters for the Leatherneck Bar (link below), articles in the Bay Area Reporter and he photographed several performances of mine as well.              


Styrous® ~ performance - 1977
photo by Jim Stewart


Jim was born on November 11, 1942. He earned his master's degree at Western Michigan University and documented the Leather Lifestyle in the mid to early 80's with his 2011 memoir, Folsom Street Blues which included many of his photographs.        

Folsom Street Blues
by Jim Stewart
book cover photo by Jim Stewart


He was a columnist for the Bay Area Reporter BARtab section (link below), a Folsom Street leather pioneer, a gay man, the cover model of his award-winning 2011 memoir, "Folsom Street Blues," and a photographer for Drummer magazine (link below). In 1976, he was among the first leather artists to move South of Market to Clementina Street.        

According to BARtab editor Jim Provenzano, Stewart contributed to the nightlife section several years ago. He also wrote the section's BARchive gay bar history column in 2013 and 2014, which included many of his historic 1970s gay nightlife photos of South of the Slot bars, Halloween, and the Russian River scene.     


Tom Hinde - 1979
photo by Jim Stewart


While managing a movie theater in 1973, Jim met Jack Fritscher, a writer, who sponsored his move to San Francisco in 1975.          


photo by Mark Hemry


Although our names are not mentioned, Jim and I were subjects in the Fritscher book, Some Dance To Remember.



Fritscher said that as a member of the SOMA Open Studio movement, Jim chronicled the creative epiphanies of the Folsom Street art scene with intimate friends he wrote about such as Tool Box bar founder Chuck Arnett, leather poet Camille O'Grady, whose performance at the Ambush Bar on Harrison Street I recorded in the early 80's . . .      


 Camille O'Grady 
photo by Glenda Hydler


. . . Old Reliable Studio photographer David Hurles and 1974 Oscar streaker Robert Opel who ran naked behind David Niven flashing a peace sign while Niven was introducing Elizabeth Taylor.




As a working carpenter in 1977, Jim built the interior of Fey-Way Studio, at 1287 Howard Street, where founder Opel exhibited his work alongside Robert Mapplethorpe, Tom of Finland, and Rex, in the gallery where Opel was murdered in 1979. I did the sound design for a couple of the exhibition openings at the gallery. Jim appeared in Uncle Bob, the 2010 documentary film about the Opel killing.

Jim wrote fiction for the Jim Moss, Folsom magazine, he shot photos for the Society for Individual Rights and documented the  Christo and Jeanne-Claude "Running Fence." He founded his Keyhole Studios in 1976.      

Jim's images of Folsom Street sexuality, including his iconic photos shot in the Slot Hotel, appeared in exhibits at bars like the Ambush; in Drummer as early as issue 14, May 1977; and in the 2008 book "Gay San Francisco."      

He managed and photographed various Folsom leather bars in San Francisco; Allan Lowery's Leatherneck (links below) and later, at the same location after the Leatherneck closed and it became the Drummer Key Club, at 11th and Folsom streets, which is now the Oasis nightclub.   

Jim left San Francisco in the 1980s when he was hired as head of the Chicago Public Library Social Sciences and History Department.  
      
Jim Stewart died on October 15, 2018, at his home in Ludington, Michigan, where he had retired. The cause of death was pneumonia two days after he broke his ankle in a fall. He was 75 years old. He is survived by Kenneth Warner his partner of 35 years; they were married in California in 2008.            
        
  
     
    
Viewfinder links:        
       
Jim Stewart         
1977 CARNIFAIR ~ Dancin' for the Seamen       
Leatherneck bar, San Francisco, 1977      
Leatherneck, Pillow, a Hungry i
Leatherneck posters     
         
Net links:        
       
Bay Area Reporter ~ Jim Stewart obit
Bilerico Project ~ Jim Stewart: SoMa Survivor obit    
Found San Francisco ~ Folsom Street: The Miracle Mile    
Foreward Reviews ~ Folsom Street Blues review     
Lambda Literary Foundation ~
       Folsom Street Blues: A Memoir of 1970’s SoMa review  
BARtab ~ Jim Stewart: Folsom Street Leather   
         
             


Jim was intense and impassioned 
but a sweeter soul never lived!


         
             
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, November 21, 2018    
         
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2 comments:

  1. Thanks for memorializing my dear friend. For more information on Jim Stewart, his work, and his friends, may I offer: www.JackFritscher.com Jim is missed. I reach for the phone to call him and...

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  2. Hello to you. Nice write-up on Jim Stewart, my friend and co-creator 1973 to his passing. For more info on Jim Stewart: www.JackFritscher.com and https://searchblossom.com/query/389/style3?key=Jim+Stewart
    I miss him (and you) still.

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